Joke aside, back in April, I got my first (ever) speeding ticket. Of course I was very scared. I don’t think I’ve ever been unafraid of a police pulling me over. The officer had marked me down as doing 44 on a 30 mile per hour zone. So my head started to run through all the possible scenarios. Since this was my first moving violation, I could get a deferral, but that means I won’t be able to use that again for 7 years. Then there’s hiring an attorney to contest the charges.
Let me explain how moving violations differ from California for my fellow readers (well from California). In California, if you haven’t had a moving violation within a year, you can opt to pay the fine, go to traffic school, and the moving violation is never recorded in your record. However in Washington, we don’t have that. We do have what is called a deferral, where you can use it once every 7 years and what happens is that the violation is marked as deferred on your record (but not reported to the insurance companies). You have to pay an administrative fee of $100, but you avoid any potential insurance rate hike. If you don’t have another traffic violation in the next 12 months, it’ll be marked as dismissed on your record. However, if you do have another traffic violation within those 12 crucial months, both violations will appear on your record and you’ll have to pay both fines.
Hiring an attorney seemed like the way to go. Should try to save my deferral for another day. Worst case scenario would be that I couldn’t get the ticket dismissed and would request for a deferral. Lawyer fees were a bit steep ($250-350), but I’ve heard good things about Jeannie Mucklestone and Timothy Coogan. I opted for Timothy Coogan as he was $100 cheaper and if he lost the case, I’d get a full refund on the lawyer fee. I called up the law firm and provided my information. They told me to fax in the court notification once I got it.
Things were set. However, I never did get the court notification. Turns out that the clerk who entered my information didn’t read the back of the ticket where I updated my mailing address. My driver license still shows my old address (should really get that changed), and it had mailed it to my aunt and uncle. Funny thing was that they’ve moved also, but somehow the mail ended up at their new apartment.
Anyway, the court date was in the middle of June so there was plenty of time left. I faxed it to the law firm and things were set once again. I called a few days before the court date to confirm things were still A-okay.
On the date of the trial, I was rather nervous. I even went to the wrong location (stupid SE vs NE streets). I did manage to get there on time, but instead of being there 20 minutes before the appointed time, I only had 5 minutes to spare. What was even scarier was that I didn’t see my attorney. I gave his law firm a call and they said he’ll be there any minute.
Judge started roll call and my lawyer was nowhere to be seen. When he got to my name, he noted that the law offices of Timothy Coogan was on his way and told me not to worry. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief for now.
So the judge started dealing with people who wanted deferrals first, then followed by people who were contesting on their own. Someone from the law firm finally showed up and pulls me aside. He tells me that Timothy was stuck in Seattle on another case and wouldn’t be able to make it. He says he’s taken a look at my file and there were a few points that he could argue on, but the current residing judge is known for not accepting those points. He says he wants to request for another date and hopefully get a “nicer” judge. There was apparently a 1 out of 3 chance I’d get the nicer judge on the next try. I was fine with that. So when it was my turn, he requested for another court date due to the fact that primary counsel was not available.
A few weeks past and I got my new court date in late August. Thankfully they got my address correct this time. I notified the law firm and they said they’ll be there. I was however shocked at the time I had to be there: 8:45am. I was like *@#!, can I even wake up?
So last night, I actually went to sleep early (1:30am). However for some reason I kept twisting and turning in bed. Either I was nervous about tomorrow’s court trial or that I couldn’t sleep that early.
This morning, I woke up at 7:30am just in case and even went to Starbucks to get a kick start for the day. Hjo3 had mentioned a new drink called the Arnold Palmer, which is actually a mixture of lemonade and tea. It sounded like a weird combo, but had potential. I decided to give that a try today. When I asked for the Arnold Palmer, the Starbucks baristas look at me like I from another world. I said I believe it’s a mixture of lemonade and black tea, and she goes, “I can do that.” It appears to be called a Lemonade Iced Tea in that particular Starbucks. Wikipedia states:
One of Palmer’s (legendary golfer) favorite drinks allegedly is a combination of half iced tea and half lemonade, a drink which is often referred to as an “Arnold Palmer” in his honor. It is now available under the name “The Original Arnold Palmer Tee”
They also have a separate entry for the drink itself. The drink itself was really refreshing and I like the taste.
Anyway, I screw up again and even though I’ve been to the court before, I thought it was on Bellevue Way (which I needed to past), but the court itself was on 112th Ave SE. I somehow ended back on the 90 freeway and had to bust a U at the next exit. I entered the address into my GPS and it got me to where I needed to go.
I arrived at the court about 15 minutes before the alloted time, so I sat there waiting for both my lawyer and the judge. The judge that entered the courtroom was new, but it was also a male. The previous lawyer that had showed up said it was a female judge that was “nice.” I’m like sigh…
My lawyer showed up awhile later, but like the previous time, contest with counsel was set to be the last to go. I forgot to note, that the courts and the lawyers like to group a whole bunch of people with the same lawyer for the same time slot. Makes life easier I suppose. I wasn’t the first one my lawyer decide to contest and his case was dismissed because the LIDAR book of records was not publically available and due to the fact that a civil trial can’t be held, the case was dismissed.
I’m sitting here thinking, I think I got caught by a LIDAR too, which I heard was extremely bad because LIDARs are really precise and the moment you even detect a presence of a LIDAR, you’ve been locked and caught already and that’s why the original lawyer thought my chances of winning was rather low.
So I was up next, and my counsel said the same reasoning as before and the judge said, “Due to the fact that a civil trial can’t be held, I’ll dis… Actually, let me read this completely, the notes are rather long.” I was SO happy for a moment, then now super suspenseful. So he spent about another 30 seconds reading, and it’s like the longest 30 seconds that I can ever remember, and he finally says, “This case is dismissed.” I thanked the judge and then I thanked my lawyer, and I walk out a super happy boy.
